Abbas Keshavarz, referring to effective measures taken over the past four years to become self-sufficient in legume production, asserted that, for instance, the Farming Affairs Department at Ministry of Agriculture has changed planting pattern for chickpea and lentil in a bid to boost legume output in the country.

In view of the taken steps, Iran’s production of legume grew from 505,000 tons in 2013 to 690,000 tons in 2016, underlined deputy agriculture minister.

The official highlighted that in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), 270,000 tons of chickpeas and leeks, 250,000 tons of beans, 80,000 tons of lentils and 90,000 tons of mung beans were harvested inside the country.

Keshavarz stressed that, except for lentils, production of other grains exceeded domestic demands and, as such, “nearly 8,580 tons of beans worth 16.770 million dollars and 1,600 tons of chickpeas worth 1.260 million dollars were shipped to global markets last year.”

Deputy Iranian agriculture minister reiterated that the Ministry intended to implement several plans to increase legume production including mechanization of the production, procurement and supplying of planting and harvesting machines, introducing new cultivars as well as producing and supplying improved seeds.